


The Cat Came Back

by lobo_chan



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Animal Death, Gen, zombie cat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-31
Updated: 2016-10-31
Packaged: 2018-08-28 06:33:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8435254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lobo_chan/pseuds/lobo_chan
Summary: Hux's beloved cat dies in a tragic accident. Kylo decides to do something about it because he is a good neighbor.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Wanted to get this out before the end of Halloween and I work a closing shift tonight. I might write more about this later if people are interested, but... here's what I managed to get out between class and work.

                There was a commotion at the Hux house.

 

                Kylo decided that peering out his kitchen window to see Hux arguing with the older man on his doorstep wasn’t enough. He could hear their voices but not make out the words, and anyone who could get through Hux’s defenses enough to get him yelling was sure to be interesting. Hell, there was hardly ever any visitors over there anyways, much less something this exciting! No one would notice if he just went to… check his mail, right?

 

                As soon as he opened his front door, he could hear Hux clearly.

 

                “I have other things to do.  I _do_ have a company to run.”

 

                “Armitage-“

 

                “I am not a show dog for you to parade around!”

 

                “Armitage Brendol Hux, I am your father. I raised you. The least you can do is-“

 

                The old man cut off as something darted out from the house and between his legs.

 

                Armitage (his name was Armitage? Wow. What an old man name.) shouted after the thing crossing the yard and pushed his father aside, “Millie! Millie, come here, girl!”

 

                Tires screeched and a car swerved and stopped.

 

               Kylo saw the whole thing from his place at the head of his drive to “check his mail”. A gray sedan had stopped in the middle of the road in front of his house. In front of Hux’s house was a heap of orange fur.

 

                The driver, a young black man, got out of the car, “Is everything alright? I didn’t hit it, did I?”

 

                Hux froze halfway across his yard.

 

***

 

 

                Hux sighed and held his pillow close to his chest. It just wasn’t the same sleeping without Millie cuddled up next to him, all warm and soft and purring.

 

                The man who ran her over had been super apologetic, but there was nothing you could do when the animal had been killed on impact. Hux had gone cold and quiet and ordered his father to leave and never talk to him again, as it had been his refusal to leave him alone and get out of the damned doorway that had let Millie out of the house. Then the weird next door neighbor, who had seen the whole thing, had offered to help him bury his little princess in the back yard. This morning, though, when he’d woken up, life had taken another shitty turn. Millie was dead and buried next to the oak tree out back, but some animal had dug her up overnight and dragged her body away.

 

               Hux tossed and turned for seemingly forever. Could the boss call in dead to work? He needed time to grieve, but the company needed him. His thoughts ran in a miserable circle as he slowly drifted off to sleep.

 

 

 

                The alarm beeped.

 

                Hux groaned and rolled over to turn it off. He had slept like shit last night.

 

                A soft meow came from the other side of his bed.

 

                He turned over to look, confused. An orange cat lay curled up on his second pillow, head raised to look at him. She yawned.

 

                “Millie?”

 

                She got up and stretched, back arching and tail going up, then jumped down to the floor.

 

                Hux got out of bed in a hurry and followed the cat.

 

                Millie (or whoever this cat was, but she looked just like Millie) lead him to the kitchen and stood in front of the pantry door, mewing expectantly. Just like she did every morning.

 

                He opened the pantry and got out her food, filling her bowl on autopilot. What the fuck? What in the serious fuck? He had held her limp little body, felt her ribs shift in ways they weren’t supposed to as he moved her and her body slowly went cold. He had buried her in the back yard with the help of his freaky neighbor who lived his life like every day was Halloween!

 

                Millie crunched at her food happily, as if nothing had ever happened.

 

                He stroked her hesitantly. She arched into it, like normal, but she wasn’t warm to the touch.

 

                He ran back to his room to fetch his phone and call Mitaka. He was going to be late to work today and would need Mitaka to get there early to let the rest of the employees in.

 

                Hux went through his morning routine, pausing occasionally to pay extra attention to the cat who had just somehow shown up in his house. Even if it wasn’t Millie, how had a cat gotten into his locked house without him noticing? Fuck, it was totally Millie. Same color fur, same eyes, she knew the morning routine and had the same soft little meow.  She rubbed up against his legs while he brushed his teeth and he felt something in her shift wrong. He did not shriek and almost choke on toothpaste. Nope. That would be undignified.

 

                An hour after he would normally leave, he made his way out the front door, locking it hurriedly behind him. He didn’t want the undead cat getting out since she seemed intent on following him, and he didn’t want Ren to see and ask what was going on. No, just get to work, run the business, and come home and everything would be back to normal and his cat would be dead again and he’d be heartbroken but time heals all wounds and he’d get on with his life.

 

                “Hey, Hux!”

 

                Fuck.

 

                He turned to face his neighbor’s side of the fence, “Yes, Ren?”

 

                “How’s Millicent doing?”

 

                “Ren, she was hit by a fucking _car_! You helped me bury her.”

 

                “Yeah. But she’s better now, right?”

 

                Hux blinked, staring at Ren. He just… What?

 

                “Shit. Did she die again after I let her into your house?”

 

                “She… I…”

 

                Ren climbed the chain-link fence and hopped on over, a blatant display of physical fitness and lack of social skills, and a breach of boundaries. He reached Hux in a few long strides and hugged him, “I am so, so sorry.”

 

                Hux stood stiff and straight, awkward in the embrace, “You-”

 

                “I was just trying to do something nice for you and I fucked it up.”

 

                “You’re touching me.”

 

                Ren let him go and backed up, sheepish, “Oh, sorry. Um…”

 

                “You… brought my cat back to life?”

 

                “Yeah.”

 

                “And then broke into my house?”

 

                “Yeah.”

 

                “You buried my dead cat, dug her up in the middle of the night, did some sort of… Some sort of witchcraft,” Hux waved his hand vaguely at Ren, “to bring her back from the dead, and then unleashed an undead monster into my house while I was sleeping.”

 

                “Wow, when you say it like that-“

 

                Hux held up a hand, “Nope. I’m done. I’m calling in sick to work. I can’t deal with this. I have a zombie living in my house now and my neighbor is a witch.”

 

                “Hux, I have a sign on my door that advertises that I’m a witch.”

 

                “I thought you were just selling bullshit to gullible people, okay?”

 

                “Wait, you said living in your house. So she’s fine?”

 

                “Nothing about this situation is fine!”

 

                And so Hux called in sick to work for the first time ever (and had to reassure Mitaka that it was fine and no he didn’t need to go to a hospital, it was just a bug and he’d be in tomorrow, don’t worry, please put Phasma on the phone). His witch neighbor had raised his cat from the dead because he was trying to be nice and now he had a witch and a zombie in his house and it was the worst and weirdest day ever. But also the witch was playing with the zombie with a laser pointer and everything seemed… fine?

 

                Hux really hoped having a zombie cat wouldn’t be too different from having a normal cat. Because now that she was here, he couldn’t bear to kill her again. And then Ren would probably just bring her back to life again.


End file.
